As Stars Fall
by PuffinLuck
Summary: After the death of Hollyleaf, Jayfeather and Lionblaze struggle to cope with the loss on top of recent events. As they both deal with their own inner demons, they must learn to trust and depend on each other and the cats around them, especially as the prophecy continues to loom over them, and an unknown darkness begins rising, threatening StarClan itself. Canon Divergence AU!


**A/N: Like many, I'd read Warriors as a kid, and had mainly enjoyed the Power of Three and Omen of the Stars. One thing that always bothered me, especially as I returned to this series as a teen, however, is how some relationships (specifically friendships/family relationships) were handled. Specifically, the books didn't focus enough on them in my opinion. So, I decided to write this little fanfic, focusing on small, character and relationship driven moments between various characters, with Jayfeather and Lionblaze as loose focus/main characters (because they were my favorite characters). Then I decided to make changes to the story itself and here we are with this.**

**With that said, this is an AU- Dovewing and Ivypool aren't born yet and won't be for several moons, but will appear eventually. All events are going to be pushed back a bit and there is a long period of calm following the last book of the Power of Three. I decided to set it up like this in order to let things settle and to really focus on Jayfeather and Lionblaze learning to deal with everything after Sunrise. This isn't going to be a plot-heavy fic for now, with the major plot being in the background as I focus on various relationships, particularly those relating to the Three. Mostly, it'll be kind of one-shot styled, with only loose continuity that'll start to build up into a greater story. I'll have more plot-focused chapters later, if I get far enough into this, but we'll just have to see. Now this A/N is long enough as it is, so I'll go ahead and let the story begin!**

**Context: This first chapter is focused on Jayfeather dealing with the aftermath of losing his sister and finding out about his true parents, and him and Lionblaze learning to depend on each other during this hard time. It's kind of intended to act as a prologue/set up of sorts for this fic as a whole.**

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**Chapter 1: Left Behind**

In the wake of their lives falling apart, Jayfeather has recently found himself alone in the medicine den, depressed, angry, and isolated. That last trait of his new life was the most painful of all. He'd been expecting the first two at the very least, but he hadn't imagined that he would be facing it all alone. If nothing else, he'd been expecting his littermates- _his best friends_\- to be there with him. But then Hollyleaf went and exposed everything before getting herself killed and he'd been left with not even a body to mourn over.

Now, in the empty medicine den, with the weight of his entire Clan's health weighing heavily and constantly in the back of his mind, Jayfeather ate his meals alone. The mouse he had in front of him was small, not enough to truly allow him to keep up his strength if he were to be honest with himself. But any food he's eaten recently has all tasted like ashes in his mouth, so he really didn't think he could stomach much anyway.

Eating slowly and silently, he could unavoidably hear the cheerful chatter of his Clanmates in the distance. The ashes in his mouth took on a bitter taste as he listened in and felt his own isolation here in the medicine den even more sharply.

Half-Clan cats had always been ostracized, and kits that were the product of a medicine cat breaking her code were even worse, being almost unheard of. He hadn't given much thought about how awful it must be to be in such a position until he'd found out that he was both. Now, he felt the burn of shame as he realized how ridiculous the attitudes of the Clans towards such cats were. He had been like them once. But no longer, for now he understood.

It wasn't like he'd had any say in being born, in choosing to whom he was born to. That didn't stop many of his Clanmates from _whispering_, though, their voices laced with a poisonous pity. Things have been awkward whenever anyone bothered to visit him.

Cinderheart, one of the few cats who didn't seem to view him any differently even after everything had been revealed, had said that everyone just wanted to give him some space. Her sentiment and concern gave him some solace, but ultimately he knew that they were only pretty lies. He appreciated her effort all the same, however, though he didn't ever really show it.

Perhaps the only ones who could really understand what he was going through were Squirrelflight, Leafpool, and Lionblaze. He really didn't feel like talking to the former two, or even acknowledging their existence ever again, however. Case in point, a few days ago, when Leafpool had gotten herself injured, inexperienced as she was with her new warrior duties, she'd inevitably had to come to the medicine den to get patched up. Jayfeather hadn't said a word as he'd treated her minor wounds silently.

He scowled at the memory. No, he definitely couldn't talk to Leafpool or Squirrelflight.

That left only Lionblaze.

As the thought of his brother crossed his mind, Jayfeather's scowl only deepened and he finally gave up on his mouse, which was only half eaten.

His brother was the only part of his family left to him after the nightmarish events about a moon ago, but he'd been going through his own struggles throughout this time. He'd been throwing himself at whatever work he could find, jumping on whatever excuse he had to not slow down or process anything. As such, he hadn't had much time to spare for his last remaining littermate.

Jayfeather supposed that he couldn't blame him (the herb supplies at the medicine den had never been more well stocked and organized), but he couldn't help but hold some resentment towards his brother. He knew that it was unreasonable, and that he was equally at fault for not approaching Lionblaze himself, but that didn't stop him from feeling the resentment anyway.

Lionblaze was the older brother, so he'd always taken it upon himself to look after Jayfeather. Between the two of them, he had also always been the more cheerful and affectionate one. To lose his support now, when he needed him most, _hurt_, even if there was a good reason behind it. And as much as he wanted- needed- his brother with him now more than ever before, Jayfeather simply couldn't fill the role Lionblaze once had in their relationship, especially as he was now. As a result, they'd grown strangely distant.

Sighing heavily, Jayfeather stood and walked over to his herb supplies once more, intending to check and sort them again. He'd done enough thinking for one day. After all, one could only ponder on their own depressing thoughts for so long.

"Jayfeather!" The medicine cat stiffened as he heard Cinderheart calling his name from a short distance away.

"What is it now?" He asked warily approaching what sounded like two cats stumbling into the den.

"Your brother is being an idiot." Cinderheart declared. Jayfeather heard the sound of a body collapsing onto the ground as the she-cat unceremoniously shifted to let the cat she'd been supporting down. "Apparently, he hurt his leg while trying to catch a _mouse_. Fix him up and try to talk some sense into him, will you?"

"I'm a medicine cat, not an elder." He said flatly. "I'm not here to impart wisdom to mouse-brained warriors." Cinderheart's disapproving gaze bore into him for a moment before he relented. "Though I suppose I'll see what I can do."

"Whatever you say," Cinderheart said, rolling her eyes. "Thanks, Jayfeather. I'm going to go ahead and head back out to hunt some more then. See you later." As she headed out, Jayfeather set his blind gaze onto Lionblaze.

He could sense his brother's discomfort, both from the pain in his leg and the awkwardness currently hanging between them.

"Come on, let me take a look at that leg of yours." Jayfeather finally said, breaking the silence and tension that had settled over them as he padded over to help his brother further into the medicine den. "Meanwhile, you can explain to me what's been going on with you. I _know_ that you didn't hurt yourself trying to hunt a mouse." They'd been dancing around everything for about a moon now. He supposed it was about time they tried to sort some things out.

"Nothing's wrong with me." Lionblaze said too quickly. "My mind just wandered a bit while hunting is all."

"Is that why you've been avoiding me?" Jayfeather couldn't completely smother out the hurt in his voice. "You just forgot about me?" He sensed a flash of guilt from his brother as Lionblaze shrunk back a bit.

"Sorry Jayfeather." His littermate mumbled miserably. "It's just... I've just been having a hard time after everything. I didn't mean to drag you into it."

"I _know _that, and you know that I know." Jayfeather said tiredly as he began inspecting Lionblaze's injured hind leg. Lionblaze winced as he did. "I've been through the same thing in case it escaped your notice. But I'm not running myself into the ground in an attempt to escape it."

"Well of course you aren't, you're a medicine cat." Lionblaze snapped defensively. His eyes widened as he immediately regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth. Jayfeather stiffened.

"You've sprained your leg." The medicine cat said curtly, turning away from his brother and heading for his herbs before Lionblaze could articulate an apology. "I'm going to apply some elder leaves to it, but you're going to have to stay off it for about half a moon to let it fully heal."

"Jay… look I didn't mean that. That was uncalled for. I'm sorry, I know you're having a hard time too." Lionblaze mentally kicked himself. Two apologies in the span of about a minute. Maybe he really did have a problem.

Jayfeather silently focused on making the poultice for Lionblaze's leg. He could feel the waves of regret coming from his brother, but he didn't want to forgive his comment just yet. Was this how other cats felt like when he was in a snappy mood?

"We shouldn't be avoiding or fighting each other." Jayfeather finally said as he began to apply the poultice onto his brother's injured leg. "Now more than ever. You're all I've got left of my family." Lionblaze was silent for a moment as he pondered on that.

"I know. It's just, don't you sometimes feel like we've been left behind?" The warrior suddenly blurted out. "Our entire family turned out to be a lie, our own Clanmates look at us strangely now, and our own littermate-" He cut himself off, unable to bring himself to go down _that_ particular rabbithole. "It just seems like no cat wants us around."

"That's not true. Our Clan has not turned their backs on us. Most of them still value us as Clanmates despite the rumors." Jayfeather said calmly, settling next to his brother as he finished applying the poultice to his leg. "Besides, Brambleclaw never lied to us. We still have him."

"There's no way you haven't noticed their whispers though." Lionblaze retorted. "And as for _Brambleclaw_, I'm pretty sure he's been avoiding me."

"Like you've been avoiding me?" Jayfeather sensed Lionblaze's mood plummeting even more and sighed heavily. For some reason, it had always been hard to hold a grudge against his brother for long. "Look, I'm just saying, it seems like you've been avoiding processing the most recent series of traumatic events we've experienced in the nightmare that is our lives. Is it possible that _you're_ the one avoiding Brambleclaw? He's made the time to come in here and keep _me_ company. There's no way that he hasn't made an effort to talk to you about everything."

Lionblaze shifted uncomfortably.

"I don't know. Maybe?"

"And Cinderheart is as supportive as ever. Firestar himself assured us that he and the entire Clan will remain on our side. If you would just slow down and process everything, maybe you can finally start to accept the help that's right in front of you." As the words left Jayfeather's mouth, he slowly started to realize that his life wasn't nearly as horrible as he'd initially thought. Perhaps Lionblaze wasn't the only one who needed to reassess the positive aspects still present in their lives.

"You're right. Just like you usually are." Lionblaze said wryly. "Still, it hurts. What happened. Emotionally, and physically now it seems." Jayfeather stilled.

"What? What's that supposed to mean?" He could sense that his brother was hiding something from him. "_Lionblaze_, how did you sprain your leg?" When the golden warrior didn't answer, Jayfeather scowled and probed into his memories. There was a pause and his eyes widened as Lionblaze's memories came flooding in.

"Jayfeather? What's wrong?" Lionblaze asked nervously.

"You went to the tunnels." Jayfeather said flatly. "You went over and climbed to the top of the rock pile and started to try and clear it out, all so that you could look for…" Another spike of guilt came from Lionblaze as he realized that his brother must have read his mind.

"Jayfeather... I'm sorry. Look, let me try to explain. I know we mourned over a moon ago, but it still hurts. I just _miss _her so much and I thought if I could just find her… _under there_, maybe I could finally move on. Maybe it would hurt less."

"And you didn't think to talk to me?" Jayfeather snapped, his shallow well of patience now bone dry and cracking. "Didn't think to at least invite me along? She was _my_ sister too! You didn't think I was hurting just as much as you are?"

"I wasn't thinking at all." Lionblaze said regretfully. "It was an impulsive, stupid move and I ended up hurting my leg after falling off that blasted pile of rocks anyway."

"You definitely deserved that, I can't believe you!" Jayfeather stood, fur bristling and puffed up angrily. "What were you going to do if you did find a body? Keep_ that_ a secret as well? Haven't we had to deal with enough secrets? Of all cats, _you_ should know better than to try to keep a secret like this."

"I- I didn't think about it like that." Lionblaze stammered out. "I'm-"

"No, don't apologize." Jayfeather cut him off harshly. "All you've done today is apologize and I've heard enough apologies to last me a lifetime this past moon. If you're really sorry, your going to have to prove it." There was a moment of silence.

"You're right." Lionblaze then said quietly. "Look, I really am sorry. Like you said, there shouldn't be any big secrets between us. Let me make it up to you."

"How?" Jayfeather scoffed.

"I didn't find a body by the tunnels, but I did find something else. I can show it to you if you want." A heavy, painful grief came from Lionblaze, almost knocking Jayfeather over. He felt it as strongly as he felt his own grief, and it was for this reason that he silently nodded, despite the unsettling sense of foreboding washing over him.

Slowly, he supported Lionblaze as they both left the medicine den and headed towards the tunnels. Much to both of their relief, they didn't bump into any of their Clanmates on their way there.

"Alright, what is it that you found here?" Jayfeather asked skeptically as they arrived at the terrible site where everything truly fell apart. He sensed Lionblaze limping over to the edge of the pile, before bringing something back with him and dropping it on the ground before. Hesitantly, Jayfeather put a paw over whatever it was and a faint, familiar scent reached his nostrils as he sniffed at it.

"This is-" His voice was choked as he tried to speak over a sudden swell of emotions.

"A tuft of fur." Lionblaze finished gravely. "Even if I didn't fall over, I wouldn't have kept digging and I'm not going to try and dig again... After finding this at the edge of the rock pile, I realized I wouldn't be able to handle actually finding… what I was looking for. It'll just hurt even more."

Jayfeather was shaking as he breathed in the familiar scent of his sister. It was faint and he knew that it would soon forever fade. A strangled noise came out of his throat as a moon of grief, loneliness, and frustration came spilling over. He wanted to yowl at something, claw at something, or throw himself at the rock pile as well and try to dig his sister up. There was so much he had to say to his brother, so many problems he'd bee struggling with this past moon, but he didn't voice any of it.

Instead, he leaned over, heavily sagging against the support of his brother and burying his face into his fur, eyes damp. Lionblaze leaned on him as well.

"It'll be alright." The golden warrior said gently. "You were right back there. We have so many cats in our Clan still supporting us and we still have each other. I'm sorry for avoiding you these past few days."

"Stop apologizing mouse-brain." Jayfeather said, his voice thick and less harsh than he'd intended it to be. "Just don't do it again." Lionblaze nodded, his own throat closing up as he finally began to let some of his own grief out.

There, by the collapsed tunnel, two brothers mourned together in silence for a long while. They still had much to talk about and a nightmarish tangle of internal grief and trauma to resolve, but for now, they were finally realizing that they have each other to help them along the way to moving on. So many had left them behind, but they were left behind together, and there was still much good left to them as well.

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**A/N: This was a lot of fun to write, which isn't surprising considering how I'm a sucker for hurt/comfort and family relationships. It's been a while since I read the warriors books, but hopefully I managed to keep everything at least somewhat in character? I'm using this as a place to practice and improve my character writing skills, and a big part of writing is learning what I need to improve on, so any and all criticism is welcome! Feel free to leave a review ;)**

**Also, as you can probably tell, Jayfeather and Lionblaze are both kind of a mess in this fic, which is intentional. I'm excited to dive into them trying to heal and move on, while also learning to rely on each other and those around them (which as stated was the whole point of this fic)**

**On a side note, in case you haven't noticed, the prophecy is also in the background in this fic, being not mentioned here at all. First of all, I'm diverging a lot from Omen of the Stars, just because I feel like the prophecy itself was extremely anticlimactic (as much as I love the series), so I'm going to be forging my own path with this, taking only some elements/pieces from the books. Also, at a time like this, I like to imagine that Jayfeather and Lionblaze have bigger things to worry about than the prophecy. Of course, it'll come up again eventually. I'm going to expand on all this in the next few chapters, however, as well as introduce more characters. **

**I have no promises to finishing this story, but hopefully, with the way I have it set up now, it won't matter if I end up not finishing? But worry not for now, I'm going to give it my best effort to see this fic through to the end :) ****Oh, also, this title is a WIP and I really want to change it. Any suggestions?**

**If you have any questions/confusions, feel free to leave a review and I'll be sure to respond to it in the next A/N! **


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